​Soundwave® Wicker designed by the celebrated architects Gert Wingårdh and Erik Wikerstål

Soundwave® Wicker, the prized and celebrated architects Gert Wingårdh and Erik Wikerstål have given the acoustic panel its perfect expression. With its woven surface, Wicker gives an industrial product with supreme acoustic qualities a touch of traditional crafts.

The origin of Wicker is a material with an expression and a set of characteristics which seems to be exact opposite of those of an acoustic panel: concrete. As architects of the ongoing renovation of Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, Gert Wingårdh and Erik Wikerstål not only have the responsibility to make sure that the prestigious 19th century building gets a climate that the art treasures will feel comfortable in, they also had to design an extension with a less prominent but very important function – the cargo hold through which the masterpieces for the exhibitions are taken in to the museum.

The task gave the architect duo the possibility to use the full potential of pre-cast concrete to give the building both a strong and joyful expression. The result, facades with a woven pattern, carried deeper abilities that now have been refined in to a product in Offecct´s acoustic panel collection Soundwave®. The importance of good acoustics is something that Wingårdh and Wikerstål, who both have great experience of designing auditoriums and concert halls, are well acquainted with. 

”What you want to do with sound is to send it in different directions”, explains Gert Wingårdh, ”And the woven pattern with its natural pockets has a nearly ideal shape for an absorbent.” With Soundwave® Wicker, Offecct initiates a long anticipated collaboration with architect Gert Wingårdh. 

”Offecct has a long relationship with Gert Wingårdh and we have over the years worked together on projects. We instantly recognised the potential for an acoustic panel when we saw the facade during a recent visit to Nationalmuseum and at that moment it became evident that the time was ready to make our first product together,” says Kurt Tingdal, CEO of Offecct.